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UnitedStatesPresidents
Category:Browse The President of the United States is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is indirectly elected to a four-year term by the people through an Electoral College (or by the House of Representatives, should the Electoral College fail to award an absolute majority of votes to any person). Since the office was established in 1789, 44 people have served as president. The first, George Washington, won a unanimous vote of the Electoral College. Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms in office, and is counted as the nation's 22nd and 24th president. Thus the incumbent, Donald Trump, is the nation's 45th president. William Henry Harrison spent the shortest time in office, dying 31 days after taking office in 1841. Franklin D. Roosevelt served the longest, over twelve years, before dying early in his fourth term in 1945; he is the only president to have served more than two terms. Since the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1951, no person may be elected president more than twice, and no one who has served more than two years of a term to which someone else was elected may be elected more than once.1 Of the individuals elected as president, four died in office of natural causes (William Henry Harrison,2 Zachary Taylor,3 Warren G. Harding,4 and Franklin D. Roosevelt), four were assassinated (Abraham Lincoln,5 James A. Garfield,56 William McKinley,7 and John F. Kennedy), and one resigned (Richard Nixon).8 John Tyler was the first vice president to assume the presidency intra-term, and set the precedent that a vice president who does so becomes the fully functioning president with his own presidency, as opposed to a caretaker president. The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution put Tyler's precedent into law in 1967. It also established a mechanism by which an intra-term vacancy in the vice presidency could be filled. Richard Nixon was the first president to fill a vacancy under this Provision when he appointed Gerald Ford to the office. Later, Ford became the second to do so when he appointed Nelson Rockefeller to succeed him. Previously, an intra-term vacancy was left unfilled. Throughout most of its history, politics of the United States have been dominated by political parties. The Constitution is silent on the issue of political parties, and at the time it came into force in 1789, there were no parties. Soon after the 1st Congress convened, factions began forming around dominant Washington Administration officials, such as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Greatly concerned about the very real capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding the nation together, Washington remained unaffiliated with any political faction or party throughout his eight-year presidency. He was, and remains, the only U.S. president never to be affiliated with a political party.9 Since Washington, every president has been affiliated with a political party at the time they assumed office. List of presidents Living former presidents Main article: Living Presidents of the United States There are currently five living former presidents. The most recent death of a former president was that of Gerald Ford (served 1974 to 1977) on December 26, 2006 (aged 93 years, 165 days). The most recently serving president to die was Ronald Reagan (served 1981 to 1989) on June 5, 2004 (aged 93 years, 120 days). Jimmy Carter holds the record for having the longest post-presidency of any president (currently 36 years, 9 days). Subsequent public service Four presidents held other high U.S. federal offices after leaving the presidency. Several presidents campaigned unsuccessfully for other U.S. state or federal elective offices after leaving the presidency. Additionally, one former president, John Tyler, served in the government of the Confederate States during the American Civil War. Tyler served in the Provisional Confederate Congress from 1861 to 1862. He was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives in November 1861, but died before he could take his seat. See also * Founding Fathers of the United States * Lifespan timeline of Presidents of the United States * Presidential portrait (United States) * Presidential $1 Coin Program * List of Vice Presidents of the United States * Biography portal * United States portal * Government of the United States portal Notes # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b c'' ''d The presidents are numbered according to uninterrupted periods of time served by the same person. For example, George Washington served two consecutive terms and is counted as the first president (not the first and second). Upon the resignation of 37th president Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford became the 38th president even though he simply served out the remainder of Nixon's second term and was never elected to the presidency in his own right. Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd president and the 24th president because his two terms were not consecutive. A vice president who temporarily becomes acting president under the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution is not counted, because the president remains in office during such a period. # Jump up^ Listed here is the most recent office (either with a U.S. state, the federal government, or a private corporation) held by the individual prior to becoming President. # Jump up^ Three presidents are counted above with multiple political affiliations: John Tyler (Whig, Unaffiliated), Abraham Lincoln (Republican, National Union), and Andrew Johnson (National Union, Democratic). # Jump up^ Listed and numbered here are the elections and inaugurations that constitute a presidential term. # Jump up^ Due to logistical delays, instead of being inaugurated on March 4, 1789, the date scheduled for operations of the federal government under the new Constitution to begin, Washington's first inauguration was held 1 month and 26 days later. As a result, his first term was only 1,404 days long (as opposed to the usual 1,461), and was the shortest term for a U.S. president who neither died in office nor resigned. # Jump up^ Political parties had not been anticipated when the Constitution was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, nor did they exist at the time of the first presidential election in 1788–89. When they did develop, during Washington's first term, Adams joined the faction which became the Federalist Party. The elections of 1792 were the first ones in the United States to be contested on anything resembling a partisan basis. # Jump up^ Due to logistical delays, Adams assumed the office of Vice President 1 month and 17 days after the March 4, 1789 scheduled start of operations of the new government under the Constitution. As a result, his first term was only 1,413 days long, and was the shortest term for a U.S. vice president who neither died in office nor resigned. # Jump up^ The 1796 presidential election was the first contested American presidential election and the only one in which a president and vice president were elected from opposing political parties. Federalist John Adams was elected president, and Jefferson of the Democratic-Republicans was elected vice president. # Jump up^ John Calhoun, formerly a Democratic-Republican, founded the Nullifier Party in 1828 to oppose the Tariff of 1828 and advance the cause of states' rights, but was brought on as Andrew Jackson's running mate in the 1828 presidential election in an effort to broaden the democratic coalition emerging around Jackson. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b c'' ''d e'' ''f g'' ''h i Intra-term extraordinary inauguration. # Jump up^ John Tyler was sworn in as President on April 6, 1841. # Jump up^ John Tyler, a former Democrat, ran for vice president on the Whig Party ticket with Harrison in 1840. Tyler's policy priorities as president soon proved to be opposed to most of the Whig agenda, and he was expelled from the party in September 1841. # Jump up^ Millard Fillmore was sworn in as President on July 10, 1850. # Jump up^ When he ran for reelection in 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln formed a bipartisan electoral alliance with War Democrats by selecting Democrat Andrew Johnson as his running mate, and running on the National Union Party ticket. # Jump up^ Democrat Andrew Johnson ran for vice president on the National Union Party ticket with Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Later, while president, Johnson tried and failed to build a party of loyalists under the National Union banner. Near the end of his presidency, Johnson rejoined the Democratic Party. # Jump up^ Chester Arthur was initially sworn in as President on September 20, 1881, and then again on September 22. # Jump up^ Calvin Coolidge was initially sworn in as President on August 3, 1923, and then again on August 23. # Jump up^ The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution (ratified on January 23, 1933) moved Inauguration Day from March 4 to January 20, beginning in 1937. As a result, Garner's first term in office was 1 month and 12 days shorter than a normal term.